


Where are the Batteries?

by enby0angel



Series: Enby's Iruka Winter Bingo [11]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Australia, Discord: Umino Hours, First Meetings, Fluff, I Don't Work Here Lady, Insomnia-induced supermarket trips, Kinda, M/M, Reddit Post, Superstitions, Umino Hours Winter Bingo, r/IDontWorkHereLady, reddit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28832823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enby0angel/pseuds/enby0angel
Summary: In r/IdontWorkHereLadyPosted by u/EightDogsIsntEnoughDogs"Hey there, long time lurker but first time posting in this subreddit. This story happened five years ago now, but I still remember it as if it happened yesterday. It's not the usual brand of story I see in this sub, but I still think it fits."
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Series: Enby's Iruka Winter Bingo [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034502
Comments: 10
Kudos: 51
Collections: The Umino Hours Winter Bingo 2020





	Where are the Batteries?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all, I'm alive. Depression has kicked my ass, but I managed to write something for the first time in two weeks. Once again, Aussie Iruka for my bingo board. 
> 
> This was written for the Umino Hours Discord's Winter Bingo Event. This was Square A4 - Winter Superstitions. Once again, kinda flipped the prompt on its head, but I still think it fits.
> 
> I don't really have much to say before this one, just that I hope the formatting is okay and I hope you enjoy!

**In r/IDontWorkHereLady**

**Posted by u/EightDogsIsntEnoughDogs**

Hey there, long time lurker but first time posting in this subreddit. This story happened five years ago now, but I still remember it as if it happened yesterday. It's not the usual brand of story I see in this sub, but I still think it fits.

I had recently moved to Australia from Japan, and my job wasn't scheduled to start for another week or so. I was working in a fairly rural area, so I decided to take a few days round trip to the surrounding towns to get a feel for the area. I enjoyed it a lot, actually, just me and my (then only two) dogs on the road for a few days.

I'd stopped into a local supermarket to find something to eat (I'd packed more than enough food for the dogs). It was a fairly large supermarket – not the biggest, but easy enough to get lost in if you didn't know your way around. I was milling around the aisles in an 11pm insomnia-induced hunger when I heard an "Excuse me?" from beside me.

I looked up to see that a handsome man had walked up to me with a basket half-full of basic items and replied, "Can I help you?"

"Can you please point me in the direction of the batteries?" the man asked. "It's probably obvious but I'm not from around here and I've never been here before."

I blinked, confused. "I'm not from around here either," I explained slowly. "I don't actually work here."

The man's eyes widened. "You don't?" he asked.

Then it hit me. I looked down at myself to realise that I was wearing the same colours as the store employees: navy blue shirt, black pants. The uniform shirts did have some orange accents to them (don't ask me who chose that as a colour scheme), but they could be a little hard to notice from far away. Also, none of the store employees were wearing a mask like I was (this was obviously pre-covid, but ever since I was a child I've had a thing about showing my face, and since it was never a problem in Japan I would wear a mask whenever I was allowed to by work and such. I'd gotten a few odd looks here in Australia, though).

I shook my head and the man blushed bright red and put a hand over his face. "I am so sorry." He sounded mortified, and tried to laugh through it. "I don't have my glasses and I just saw the colours and assumed, I am so sorry."

I laughed and held my hand up. "No, no, it's okay!" I sympathised with being vision impaired, as I was blinded in my left eye on my last mission in the military. "I'm pretty sure I passed them earlier," I continued. "If you like, I can help you look for them?"

Now, to this day I have _no_ idea why I said that last part. I am _not_ a people person. I'm so far not a people person it's not even funny. If you look up the word "introvert" in a dictionary, you will find my name. I have _never_ been a people person and I avoided human contact wherever possible for all of my life up until this point.

The man peeked through his fingers and quietly said, "Really? I don't want to bother you more than I already have."

"No, you're not bothering me at all." Why was I still talking??? "Like I said, I think I saw them earlier."

He accepted my help and I took him over to where I saw the batteries. We made a bit of small talk along the way, mostly about why we were both in the supermarket at near on midnight. And my dogs. I showed him a photo of my two fur babies and he seemed delighted.

Sure enough, the batteries were where I remembered and we parted ways. And that's that, right? Just another harmless case of mistaken identity, right?

Wrong.

Now, the new job that I was scheduled to start happened to be a teaching job at a high school. Specifically, I would be teaching physical education (PE, basically a sports/health class) and VCE mathematics. I waltzed into my first staff meeting before the school year started, dumped my stuff on the desk that was indicated to be mine and began introducing myself to my new coworkers. I was chatting with a few of the other teachers in the maths department when, you guessed it, Supermarket Man walked into the office.

He looked genuinely surprised to see me, as I was to see him. But then he grinned widely and held up one finger in a "wait a moment" gesture. I watched him as he placed his bag on his desk and came right up to me. He introduced himself and I found out that he was of Japanese descent. Our following conversation was half in English, half in Japanese as we got over the shock of finding out you now work with someone you never thought you'd see again. The coworker I was talking to looked back and forth between us with a look of amused surprise before leaving us to our conversation.

Supermarket Man, whom I'll call D from here on as I now knew his name, was one of the nicest guys I'd ever met. He was a single parent to his adopted son and he loved that kid with all his heart, and I could see that look of pride in his eye that you see parents get when they talk about their kids. He was passionate about his job and was familiar with a lot of the kids, as he himself had grown up in the area and attended the very school we were both now teaching at. He was more than happy to tell me a bit about my future students, new coworkers, the non-teaching staff, and just generally how the place runs. I'd been given a tour of the school when I'd forst gotten the job, but D gave me a more in-depth tour after the meeting.

'But if this happened five years ago, why are you just posting this story now?' you may be asking. And that is an excellent question.

Today, as I am posting this, is the five year anniversary of me meeting D in a random supermarket at nearly midnight. And wouldn't you know it, it's also the first anniversary of my wedding to the kindest, funniest, most genuine men I have ever had the fortune to meet. I love him and his kid with every fibre of my being and I have never felt more at home than when I am with them.

While I was raised by a religious father (Shinto), I have never particularly been one for superstitions. The ones I do partake in usually revolve around winter, so I don't really have any summer superstitions. However, I can't help but feel like there was some unknown force that pushed him and myself together that hot summer night, and then again when we met at the school.

I've been teaching at that school for five years now, dating D for four and a half of those, and have been married to him for one. A case of mistaken identity gone right.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated.
> 
> (Can you tell I listen to a lot of reddit podcasts? >.>)


End file.
